In Curse of Dragons, Mysticana ups its game

Curse of Dragons was actually the second Mysticana game I learned because I was part of its playtest forum. But approaching it again after learning Cave of Djinns, Wild Magic and Harbingers, I have a different perspective.

Mysticana is a game system that is designed to use small expansions to create new games. This is a tried and true formula. I mean, chips + cards

= poker. The basic Mysticana deck consists of six ranks in three suits and the suits have a rock-paper-scissors relationship. And, to be honest, I have been surprised and happy with what Mysticana has offered. 

Every Mysticana expansion/game has consisted of six cards so far. In Curse of Dragons, those six cards are five dragons and a reference card that I’ve found quite helpful. Each dragon has three bits of mechanical info on it: its difficulty ranking, its hoard/attack effect and the card sequence you need to make to defeat it.

You fight three dragons in every game. While it can be random, the fact that they have a difficulty rating means you can curate how tough you want your game to be. After you select your dragons, you draw a hand of three. One of those cards immediately goes to the hoard. More on the hoard later.

You have four actions you can take. Draw a card. If the value of your hand is fifteen or bigger, you bust. More on that later. Summon: if you have at least three of a suit, you can deploy one of those cards for free. Rescue, if you have at least three of a suit, you can discard one to get pull a card from the hoard that’s a weaker element.

And deploy. Deploy is the main action of the game. You play cards next to dragons to build up a pattern to defeat them. (And they all have specific requirements) The cards must be in ascending or descending order. And you have to discard their value or greater to place them. But you do get to do a bonus action, depending on their suit. Water lets you add a card from the discard pile to the dragons. Fire lets you discard cards beside one dragon. Wood lets you rearrange all the cards of a single rank.

Remember how I’d get back to hoard? The hoard is a separate stack that is how the game puts the hurt on you. When you bust, each dragon gets to use its hoard effect, forcing you to add a card from your hand to the hoard. The hoard being fifteen or higher automatically makes you lose.

From my perspective, since I’m not quite sure what order Mysticana games came out, Curse of Dragons represents a jump in both depth and complexity. It is meaningfully more difficult than, for example, Cave of Djinns, which I think was the first solitaire expansion. 

There is a lot going on, given its small scale. Four different types of actions, plus three types of bonus actions. The decision tree starts to build up as you play. Gameplay isn’t complicated but there’s a lot to keep track of in a fifteen minute game.

The hoard definitely adds good tension to the game. Managing the hoard can be more important than managing the dragons because it’s the game losing condition. The hoard is your AI opponent playing by its own rules.

Curse of Dragon is fun and interesting. At least for me, it’s a tough game to beat but I enjoy trying. I don’t know what the end goal of the Mysticana system is but Curse of Dragons indicates ambitious plans.